Bassus of Nice

Saint Bassus, hieromartyr, was, according to tradition, the first known bishop of Nice in France, killed in the persecution of Decius, around 250. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and commemorated on 5 December. Another source calls him bishop of Nicaea in Asia Minor.

The English source says he was born about 179 and worked on the Côte d'Azur. He was martyred for the faith, under Decius, burned with red-⁠hot blades and pierced from top to bottom with two large shipbuilder's nails, one through each foot. He is patron of the town of Cupra Marittima in Italy, where his body was taken after death, and since 1922 or 1923 the second patron of Nice. The Russian source says that he was nailed to a board with two iron rods, in the time of Decius Trajan.

Since no episcopal see at Nice is known before the council of Aquileia (381), it is possible that Bassus was bishop of Nicaea in Asia Minor and that his relics reached Nice late. In support of this view comes the encomium of Saint Bassus delivered by John Chrysostom on the day of his commemoration. A canon in the fourth tone, written to Saint Bassus by Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople, has also survived. The sources do not agree with each other about his see.